Calsolaro to Cuomo: Governor, let’s rebuild Albany instead

While boosters of Albany’s proposed downtown convention center grasp for some kind of silver lining in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent statements on on the topic, one the $220 million project’s enduring critics wouldn’t mind helping the governor start shoveling some dirt on its grave.

In this letter to Cuomo last week, 1st Ward Councilman Dominick Calsolaro gently reminded the governor about an idea he pitched to him last February: Scrap the Albany Convention Center Authority in favor of a “Rebuild Albany Construction Authority” empowered to help rehab/demolish decrepit buildings, repair crumbling infrastructure and establish a revolving loan fund to promote homeownership.

From Calsolaro’s initial letter:

“What I am asking you to do is to review the whole convention center/hotel project. Albany is a capital city, it should look like one. The RACA I am proposing would go a long way into making Albany the capital of capital cities. The City of Albany needs a major investment by the State of New York in order for this to happen. A convention center/hotel is a “sexy” idea, hundreds of vacant, dilapidated buildings made into owner-occupied homes, with attendant reconstructed streets and sidewalks, while not as “sexy” as a convention center, will go a lot further in making Albany the capital of capitals, than one lonely convention center.”

I’d wager that Mayor Jerry Jennings’ administration — a supporter of the convention center project — would argue that various city programs and economic development initiatives already target some or all of the things Calsolaro is talking about.

In fact, one of the underpinning arguments made for the convention center is that its economic spillover will be fundamentally good for the city (though critics, like Calsolaro, sharply question that).

Nevertheless, it seems Calsolaro’s point is that the roughly $63 million in state seed money left sitting in an account for the convention center would be better spent directly on those things, rather than waiting for the city’s fortunes to rise with the convention center’s tide.

What do you think? Pie in the sky or legitimate alternative worthy of consideration?

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

13 Responses

I’ve said before that the convention center is a waste of money. There are no attractions here to draw conventioners. We have no zoo, no aquarium, no big name stars in our theaters, nothing the big convention cities have. We can’t compete with Las Vegas, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. We’re not even in the ballpark. This idiot idea that if we build it they will come is proven to be false because we already have a convention center (EGG) that is totally underutilized.

That convention center should stay “pie in the sky”. Your other column this morning on the hotel tax may also have bearing here. Am I correct in that although they say the civic center has been making a profit that profit does not cover the debt service? What kind of a budget is it that doesn’t consider interest payments as part of the operating expense? Also would any new convention center leave Albany taxpayers burdened with an even more onerous debt service??

Why does taxpayer money have to be spent just because it is there? I have never understood that kind of thinking. Seems most politicians are concerned with how to spend money rather than how to save it.

Me too, the convention needs to go the way of the dodo bird. But we know why the mayor wants it, to give more money to those welfare queens at BBL. Yes welfare queens, public money profiteers.

@Hope, this is just a knee jerk reaction for these no imagination leaders. When there is money, money gotta be gone. Thats why why our taxes are so high.

Calso idea of using the cash for urban renewal is not new, I think councilclown spewed it back in 2009. Honestly ive been back and forth with it. Thats because I dont trust the mayor to do right. I think Gerry would just give it to BBL and keep it in the upper wards. I would trust progs with it if they can show that they won’t come back to the state and beg for more.

@Albany Common Sense – I wouldn’t trust Jennings with the funding of the RACA either. That is why I proposed that the convention center authority be reconstituted as the ReBuild Albany Construction Authority. That way it is under a STATE authority’s control, subject to the very demanding Public Authorities Law accountability provisions that require complete transparency, independent audit review, etc.

In reality Calsolaro would do anything he could to get his name in the papers …The New York Convention Center in Albany would be a boom to the city of Albany … Producing Approx. 80 million in tax revenue .. will produce at the start at least 300 construction jobs and when it is done approx. 800 permanant jobs … jobs that are needed for the blue collar workers … If you would look back to an earlier time … it is people like Calsolaro .. that didn’t want the State Capitol … The Empire Plaza … The Knickerbocker arena .. A bridge over the Hudson River … A railroad station in Albany .. if we listened to them where would Albany be today .. Remember the convention center is a STATE OF NEW YORK PROJECT not a city or county of Albany project .. Albany Property owners will hardley be effected ..Tax wise . The Timesunion Center is being paid off with the Albany County Motel/hotel / Bed tax some of those funds are or will be used to pay off the convention center .. The picture is not as gloomy as some of you make it out to be…We must think what is best for Albany’s future as the people before us did

How much is the convention center going to cost to operate and own? Then we can make a proper assessment of wether the convention center is financially beneficial for the city. Assuming your revenue numbers are even close.

See, if the cost is greater than the revenue, then we the people have to make up the difference.

But I will agree with you that progressives have been strong opponents of progress. But I don’t think this is what is going here this time. I think Calso wants the money better spent directly on the community instead of directly for the welfare queens at BBL, the way the mayor wants it.

In case anyone missed it, Fred Lebrun once again makes the case for the convention center even though he admits it will lose money. To his credit, he admits the TU Center loses money. A lot of money. Remember that the next time Carol Demare writes an article talking about the TU’s “operating profits” that are “hailed by local politicians”.

“Imagine downtown Albany without Times Union Center and every event that’s been held there. I’m not going to say the arena has been transformative, but pretty close. It loses money, more often than not a lot of money. Is it worth it?”

Lebrun also makes the case that the Empire State Plaza is transformative.

Personally I like to stand in front of the TU center and look across 787 at the buildings there. These buildings are also in the shadow of the Plaza. Some of them are boarded up.

And this is why Calsolaro’s idea would be much better than the Convention Center. A few decades of these money losing projects and nice brick row houses right across the street are vacant because no one wants to live there. I can’t wait for a convention center attendee who wants to “go see the Hudson” and mistakenly walks into the South End.

Walk downtown on a night when there is no event at the TU center. It is dead. And for the record, in January there were 18 nights with no events at the TU center. Of the other nights that had events there were only two that weren’t local sporting events that few people attend. So in January we got Kelly Clarkson(I’m sure if was great!) and Monster Trucks (also transformative stuff).

I dare you to imagine, like Lebrun asks, a january without Clarkson and Monster Trucks.

Now, throw in a money losing convention center that will only be booked 50% of the time if it meets its wildest expectations.

And you have a dead downtown. Or you could invest in housing and retail and have community every day of the year. But, as Common Sense notes, that wouldn’t benefit BBL or the Mayor, who lives about as far from downtown as is possible. And, thus, it won’t happen.

Some might even go as far as to say that Jennings doesn’t want independent businesses or residents downtown because they would vote. And speak out. And odds are they wouldn’t vote for him.

@aloberto – I think your 800 jobs created by the convention center is a little too high. Most likely, the few “plum” jobs will be given to the people imported to manage the facility. The studies for the convention center, themselves, show that a “BEST case scenerio” for the center is that it will be used only 60% of the year. So, most jobs that are created will be low-paying, part-time positions.
Also, while the convention center is a STATE OF NEW YORK PROJECT, it is already costing city and county taxpayers money. In 2012, the city’s real property tax assessor said the city will lose $120,000 in tax revenue for the land that the authority has already purchased (as a State authority, they are exempt from paying property taxes to localities). Add in lost school district taxes and county taxes, and that figure grows to about $300,000 more in 2012 that city and county taxpayers must pay out of their pockets to make up for the loss tax revenue from the convention center. As AlbanyCommonSense says, all costs associated with the center must be included (full-cost accounting)when determining the “true” fiscal impact the center will have on the city.

Also, I supported putting the Knickerbocker Arena in downtown Albany, instead of in one of the suburbs outside of the city (and I thank former County Executive Jim Coyne for sticking to his commitment to build the Arena in downtown Albany, despite strong opposition from many quarters to have it built outside of the city). I also would have supported constructing the rail station IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, but that’s not where it was located. It should have been moved to Albany when it was rebuilt under Sen. Bruno’s leadership.